Bravado
by goldgunsgirls
Summary: AO. Just a small intended one-shot of jealousy and angst. Requested.


**A/N:** This is my first SVU and first AO fic. So. Yeah. I don't know a shitload about Alex and Olivia but I think I know enough to get by. (In my opinion it's pretty shitty but this beautiful tropical fish wanted this - and I promised it - so I wrote it.) This is also unbeta'd (is that the word?) so any and all mistakes are mine and mine only. Characters are not mine; SVU belongs to Dick Wolf, NBC, etc. (Don't sue me, I don't fuckin' have anything okay.) Constructive criticism is always welcome. Cause I really have no idea what I'm doing in this fandom.

Alex Cabot walked into the Manhattan Precinct, her hair perfectly curled, her power-suit finely pressed and wrinkle free. For one of her first full years back in quite a long time, she expected nothing but the best. In spite of it being almost midnight on a Saturday, the blonde district attorney didn't fall short on her appearance. _Ever_.

Detectives Benson, Amaro, Tutuola, and of course, Rollins, were sitting at a desk and eating a very late takeout dinner - it seemed like it had become a tradition of sorts - while looking over their current case.

_Wasn't that ever our thing?_ Cabot wondered.

Cabot shrugged it off and walked slowly toward the desk, a smile on her face.

Amanda took a bite of a spring roll and waved her hands quite expressively at the folders sprawled on the desk. Alex noticed the Detective she had met a few months earlier had somewhat of a Southern accent. "Well, Lisa had already said that something happened that night, right? But now her story keeps changing and -"

Cabot eyed the new blonde in the precinct, unfamiliar with her. She cleared her throat, cutting the blonde off.

Olivia was clearly the first one to notice, her head shooting up from the case files that were strewn across the desk. A small smile painted her face as she rarely had chances to catch up with her favourite ADA. Alex noticed her gaze and smiled back.

"Oh, back in town, counselor?" Amaro said, throwing her a smile.

"Actually, yes. I'm here to work on the..." Alex opened the manilla folder in her hand, quickly scanning it. "Abrams case with you."

"Good to have you on our team, Cabot." Amanda smiled at her.

"More correctly, _back_ on the team." Olivia chimed in.

Alex pursed her lips. She kicked herself for going to Africa. A little part of her felt that Olivia never forgave her for packing up and leaving her - the team - like that. Not that it wasn't for a good cause, mind you, but as she was in the Congo, she realized that there was something, someone in New York she wished she hadn't left behind

Regardless, Alex could tell that a cosmic shift had taken place. She'd missed out on a lot of things since her leave and now it was as if the blonde - Detective Rollins - had replaced her.

She could tell that some sort of bond had formed between Olivia and Amanda.

Admittedly, she was jealous. Subtly, Alex narrowed her eyes at Amanda.

_She's gotta go_, Alex thought.

Amanda wiped her hands on a napkin and stood up from the desk, checking her watch - 11:45. "I think I'm gonna call it a night, it's getting kind of late." She grabbed her jacket and walked out of the precinct, affectionately patting Fin on the shoulder as she left.

"See you tomorrow." Fin said.

Alex was immediately over-analyzing the affect Amanda had on the team. It's not as if she could help it, though - for as long as she could remember, there was no other blonde at the Manhattan precinct working with her detectives.

Still, she couldn't help but smile as she watched her saunter out of the precinct.

"Who wants to fill me in?"

Olivia sighed. "Alright, so our vic, Lisa Abrams, comes to us and says that she was roophied by a guy at a club she went to in Midtown. But then, the guy from the club, James Neal, comes to us later and says that Lisa roophied him. We checked all the cameras in the area, including the low-quality one in the club, and it's pretty much inconclusive."

"Here's the twist." Amaro added, "After Lisa heard James came to us, her story started changing to one of those he-said-she-said stories."

"Ah, the D.A.'s office sure does like those," Alex regarded sarcastically.

"Look, all we need is a warrant to search Lisa's apartment. We haven't gotten nearly enough evidence to convince Judge Petrovsky for one. Besides," Olivia shrugged, "I'm sure she would love to see you again."

Alex checked her watch, and it was inching closer to 12:00am. "Well, as much Petrovsky would love hearing from me at this hour, I'll try her first thing in the morning. If that doesn't work, maybe Cutter can help with it. In the meantime, Detectives, I have a few more cases to go by before I turn in for the night."

"It's gonna be a long one, huh, Cabot." Fin replied.

Alex raised her eyebrows and huffed out a breath.

She nodded to the detectives at their desks and began to walk out.

"Wait," Olivia croaked, standing from her desk, "Let me walk you out." Alex slightly turned her head and waited for Olivia to join her.

Alex really hadn't lost her place after all.

The ride in the elevator wasn't as awkward as Olivia had thought it would be. It was just simple small talk, but she couldn't help noticing the finer details that Alex always had down to a tee. Each curl of her hair was perfectly measured, each swipe of mascara and liner was most definitely even - nothing about her was disheveled.

Well, nothing on the outside.

You wouldn't realize it when looking at her, but Alex was having an inner turmoil. Being back in New York had brought up unresolved feelings that Alex had toward Olivia. Her eyes flickered to the floor, thinking of how she could get her old relationship back with Olivia.

Olivia noticed the few moments of silence as they walked out of the elevator and caught Alex's eye.

"Hey, you alright?"

Alex smiled and nodded slightly. "Yeah. I'm fine."

I've been a detective for how long? I'm not that blind, Olivia thought.

"Listen," Olivia said, gently grazing Alex's forearm, "We're all going to the bar after work on Friday for a few drinks after we're done this case. Would you like to join us?" Olivia stuck her hands in her pockets. (_Great move, _Olivia thought,_ what am I, a nervous teenager?_)  
Alex didn't even think it over before she happily sputtered, "Definitely!" The enthusiasm in her voice caught her off guard. Olivia nodded, "Great. It'll be good to catch up. You'll be back with the warrant in the morning?" The way she said it made it more of a statement than a question.  
The ADA rolled her eyes slightly and fought a smirk. "Goonight, Liv."  
With that, Alex walked to her car, the all-too familiar feeling of uneasiness settling in her; Olivia curiously regarded what she had done to dishevel the attorney. It's not as if she hadn't noticed when Alex's eyes would wander from time to time when she met them in the precinct. Olivia had even let her eyes skim the slender woman's body many, many times when she was paying no attention.

It's not as if she could help herself. Alex has _great_ legs.

The first thing Alex did the following morning was schedule a meeting with Judge Petrovsky. Unlike many of the judges that Alex had encountered in her time working with the District Attorney's office, she had an adversarial bond with Petrovsky. In spite of the time that she had worked with the judge on various cases and trials, there was no "okay" for the search warrant the detectives needed to be issued. Alex would have gotten Cutter to help on her appeal for the judge, but he was definitely not in the mood for anything to take his attention away from his current case.

So began the walk down the hall to the squadroom. Olivia and Amaro were debriefing Captain Cragen while Munch and Fin were on a hunt for witnesses; Amanda was at her desk, her nose buried in a file.

"Alex, did you get the warrant?"

Alex shook her head. "There's nothing solid about this case. We always have 'he said, she said' cases but, as you recall, they usually end in a mistrial. Not exactly a home run for the D.A.'s office," Olivia scoffed, clearly annoyed, but Alex continued. "I need something solid so I can try again. Anything."

"Alex, come on. Can't you convince Petrovsky the case is solid?" Olivia huffed.

Amaro added, "We have Lisa Abrams on a 72-hour hold, but it's gonna time out in..." he checked his watch, counting the hours, "one hour and thirteen minutes."

Alex shrugged, "Frankly, I'm not sure anything about this is solid."

By now, Olivia was a bit annoyed. (_She gets moody when she can't get a warrant_, Alex had noticed.) "We're doing our jobs, Alex. Now you do yours."

"Olivia, there is nothing I can do about this!" Alex sighed. "I'll try again once you find more evidence."

"I'm lookin' for something," Rollins yelled from across the room, turning another page of the folder.

Alex sat at her desk, leaning her head on one of her hands, scribbling notes on a paper for Cutter, who had a trial to go to the following day. It was just past 8:30pm, the only sound in her office the obnoxiously loud ticking of the wall clock. Unexpectedly, the door flew open, startling her. The one opening the door, naturally, was Olivia Benson. Alex was used to having screaming matches with Elliot and Olivia when they had worked tough cases with no leads, but now, it was just Olivia she'd have to deal with - which was expected.

"I applaud your manners, detective." Alex mumbled sarcastically, finishing scribbling her notes.

Olivia nodded. "I hope you're happy. Now that we don't have a warrant, we have nothing to hold Lisa Abrams on. And our 72-hour hold timed out. Now she's back out there. How many people have to be drugged and assaulted for you to do something about it?"

Alex scowled, dropping her pen to the desk. "Really? It's not as if it's my choice that I can't get you a warrant, Liv. If I had the power, I'd give it to you, but it's not my choice. If you don't have substantial evidence, I can't get the warrant - you see how that works?"

"Don't patronize me." Olivia replied, her voice steadily raising. "You know what, now that we're here, let's cut the crap."

Olivia slammed Alex's door closed as her co-workers were walking by and peering inside at the shouting. The attorney rose from behind her desk and stood in front of it.

Alex, ever the mediator, crossed her arms, saying quietly, "Please, let's not make this bigger than it is."

"No, it's too late, Alex. Do you wanna know how I felt when you were gone? I was scared. And you know I don't scare easy. You went off and packed up just like that," Olivia snapped her fingers, "and left everyone behind. I know it was for a good cause, Alex, I really do, but I was so worried about you. I didn't want you to get hurt ... That's the third time you left me."

Alex's mind was racing. Had she been keeping count this entire time? She could see the hurt in Olivia's eyes, and Alex felt so terrible that she had been the one to cause that. "Liv, I - "

All Olivia did was shake her head and nearly speedwalk from where she stood at the door to where Alex was standing in front of her desk. Her hands wrapped around the attorney (her left, at the base of Alex's neck; the right, at her hip) and pulled her close, leaning for a tentative kiss.

Certainly not what Alex had expected.

She had expected another shouting match, harsh words, but _this_?

Alex found herself enveloped in the warm, welcoming heat of Olivia's mouth, the soft gentle touch of her lips against hers. It's soft and hesitant at first, until Olivia sighs and somehow manages to move closer, Alex now backed up flush against her desk. Not knowing what to do with her hands, she just grabs Olivia's purple button-up and tugs her impossibly closer. Alex can feel herself getting lost, and as much as she would like to continue, she finds the strength to pull away, just slightly.

Alex sat there and panted, licking her lips unconsciously. "I'm sorry," she breathed, "I'm so, _so_ sorry."

Olivia leaned in again, (noticing Alex's hands had tightened their grip on her shirt) this time with a hint of bravado. She had no trouble letting herself get lost in the impossibly soft skin, her tongue and lips dragging from the soft lips down to the column of Alex's neck, hearing her breath hitch as she moved.

Sadly, they were interrupted.

Alex's office door swung open to reveal Amanda Rollins standing there, a case file in hand. Olivia turned away from Alex, but Rollins definitely knew what was going on.

"Whoa, sorry, I uh...didn't mean to interrupt anything. I just came to uh," Amanda could feel herself blanking on why she came in the first place. "You know what, I'll come back later, it can wait." She retraced her steps and turned on her heel, leaving immediately and shutting the door behind her.

As quickly as Amanda had entered, she was gone, leaving Olivia and Alex alone once again.


End file.
